Predictable
by Random1377
Summary: I'm sure you've read something like this before... and you probably already know how it will end.  Read it, if you'd like... you may enjoy it.
1. Alpha

Disclaimer: I don't own EVA. If the owners say to, I'll take this story offline. Thanks.

Predictable

(Alpha)

By Random1377

Shinji Ikari woke with a raging headache. Not the dull throb kind, but the kind where it feels like someone has wrapped bands of metal around your head and is slowly tightening them down until your brain explodes. His mood was not helped any by the vague memories of the dream he had been having – something about sliding sideways off of something, he could not QUITE remember what – or the oppressive heat of his room, which had somehow increased in temperature by a minimum of 433 degrees overnight.

He groaned, putting a hand on his forehead and keeping his eyes tightly closed as he pushed his sweaty covers (which had found their way up over his face) down to his chin, silently cursing the daylight streaming through his window.

_Weird, _he thought with a sigh, _must have gotten turned around – that, or someone cut a hole in the wall and made me a new window. At least that explains why my covers were over my face._

Scrubbing said face with one hand, Shinji sat up… and immediately, the fact that something was very, VERY wrong became glaringly obvious. It was not the smell of cooking food, an oddity in the apartment he shared with Misato Katsuragi and Asuka Langley Souryu, though that did strike him as a little strange. It was not the sound of running water – a sure sign that someone was taking a shower, when he was almost always the first one out of bed. It was not even the fact that under the smell of cooking food, there was an underlying, subtly floral scent, faintly familiar, though he could not say why.

No, what clicked home as being off first was the weight of the blankets now pooled around his waist… second was the weight that did NOT lift from his chest.

Insight came to Shinji very quickly, courteously informing him of his situation and drawing a rather panicked shriek from his larger-than-normal chest.

"AHHH!!"

The door to his room flew open with a bang – a third note that something was horribly amiss, considering that he had a sliding door – and a concerned voice demanded, "What, what's wrong??"

Shinji opened his eyes, gaping as he found himself face to face with a rather well-endowed, currently bra-clad woman of about eighteen. "K-Kodama…??"

The name leapt immediately into Shinji's mind, though he had never seen so much as a picture of the girl. "Oh gawd," she drawled, rolling her eyes, "you didn't dream that dad was getting abducted by aliens again, did you? Honestly, you need to grow up…"

"Y-yeah," Shinji stammered, trying not to stare at the girl as she stretched her arms up over her head, thrusting her ample bosom towards him. "Sorry."

Kodama sighed. "You sick or something?" she said disgustedly. "You never wake up early unless you're sick. Hell, it's not even six. You're such a slackass."

"Right."

Throwing her hands in the air, the girl took her leave.

_Ok,_ Shinji thought, reaching under his covers and pinching himself rather hard on the thigh. _Ow! Son of a- ok, it's not a dream… which means – good God, you have GOT to be kidding me! How did this happen?!_

There was no mistaken WHAT had happened to him – a quick, guilty peak down at his chest was enough to make it clear – but the questions of how, why, and what the hell to do next DID cross his mind. Normally, Shinji was a fairly low-key person. Sure, he was prone to being a bit nervous when angels showed up, or if someone was focusing too closely on him, but left to his own devices, he tended to be rather calm and collected.

Then again, he had never woken up in a classmate's room, sporting her breasts as an accessory, so he really had no basis for comparison.

"Kodama wasn't bothered," he muttered to himself, "so I must look-"

He cut himself off.

_That's not my voice._

Logic, or as much logic as could be applied in a situation like this, asserted itself – dictating that clearly, he had BECOME Hikari Horaki. He had not been drugged, saddled with implants, and shoved in her bed, he was in her body.

"Hikari?"

He felt a little foolish, sitting in Hikari's bed (and skin) and calling her name, but in the handful of science fiction movies he had seen where this kind of thing happened, there was the odd case wherein the person replaced lingered in the displacer's mind – and if Hikari WAS hanging around in his subconscious, he needed to get her attention.

"Hikari, are you here…?!"

_Idiot!_ he thought angrily, transforming some of his fear into self-loathing… a specialty of his, actually. _She would have 'said' something by now, wouldn't she? I know I would, if she was running my bod… y…_

Abruptly, Shinji kicked the covers back, shooting a glance at the clock on the far side of Hikari's room. There was less than an hour and a half until school. Logic, that pesky, currently sparse friend of his, suggested that if he was here, then Hikari must be in his body, so if he could meet up with her, maybe he could figure out a little of the why and what to do bits.

…unfortunately, that meant dressing.

Which required UNdressing.

Which required seeing, touching, and arranging various portions of Hikari's anatomy.

He got as far as taking 'his' panties off – clouting himself rather painfully on the side of the head on the edge of the dresser – before realizing that he was going to have to open his eyes.

Especially considering that he had no idea where Hikari kept her clean underthings.

_Bottom drawer, little dresser,_ he thought instantly, absently brushing a strand of hair from his face and moving unerringly across the room and pulling the drawer open. _Thank God that's the right one…_

He paused with his hand on a row of neatly rolled panties.

How HAD he known that? How had he known that the woman in the lacy bra had been Kodama?

How in the hell was he going to be able to touch Hikari's breasts to get them into the bra without having his nose explode and spray blood all over the drawer of snowy white panties and bras??

_Well,_ he thought pragmatically, quickly pulling on a pair of panties without focusing on what, exactly, he was covering,_ I DID touch Rei's that once. So what if it was just one? So what if it was an accident? So what if she smacked me later that day – yeah, it wasn't FOR that, but she still hit me! I've touched a woman… I can do this…_

How foolish he was to believe that it would be that easy.

"Hey, Hikari, I was wondering if I could… what are you doing…?"

Shinji froze as Hikari's younger sister (_Nozomi_, his mind supplied) pushed her door open. "Umm…" he hummed, yanking his hands away from where they had been, "just… umm… you know…"

"Ah-ha!" the younger girl cried, leveling a finger at what she thought was her older sister. "I KNEW it!!"

_I'm dead!_ Shinji thought frantically, _She__ knows – she knows I'm not Hikari! And she saw me touch-_

"You CAN make them bigger, can't you??"

Shinji gaped for a moment, absently folding his arms across his chest. Desperately thinking back to the little he knew of Hikari's family, he tossed his head imperiously to the side and replied, "That's big girl stuff… you don't need to worry about it for a few years yet, pipsqueak."

_Pipsqueak??_ he thought with a mental groan, _That was so mean! I'm sorry!_

Before he could voice this thought, Nozomi sniffed dramatically. "You're still just a B-cup," she said snottily, apparently unfazed by the insult, "you'll never get Ds like Kodama – no matter how much you rub!"

"I wasn't rubbing!" Shinji said shrilly, "I was just… er… checking for lumps."

"Suuure," Nozomi drawled. "Anyway, can I borrow your pink lipstick?"

Words sprang to Shinji's lips before he could even think. "Daddy said you can't have makeup until you're twelve."

Nozomi stomped one foot. "Aww, come on!" she protested, "It's just another year! Come on – Kodama lets me!"

This time, Shinji came up with an answer on his own, finding himself rather enjoying this little exchange.

"Well why don't you ask her, then?"

Throwing her hands up in disgust, Nozomi spun around and marched out of Hikari's room, leaving the door open in her wake.

Shinji snatched a bra out of the drawer, slipping his arms into it and quickly fastening it before his curious hands could overrule his brain's commands a second time… because surely he would never CONCIOUSLY order them to cop a feel on a borrowed body.

Not Shinji Ikari!

_Only, that's right…_ he thought, turning towards Hikari's closet, _I'm NOT Shinji Ikari… not anymore. Or at least, not right NOW._

Forcing his mind to go into standby mode, Shinji quickly dressed, pretending that he could not understand what the pressure in his abdomen was for as long as he could before hurrying off to the bathroom.

Sitting on the toilet, his (her?) face entirely crimson, Shinji softly moaned the only words that fit his current predicament.

"This sucks…"

Breakfast, fortunately, passed by uneventfully, giving Shinji a chance to think as Hikari's two sisters bickered over who got to eat the last piece of bacon. All he had to do, he reasoned, was make it to school and find Hikari. Then what? Well, he would figure that part out when he got there.

_Maybe it's like Freaky Friday,_ he thought as he and his 'sisters' set out for the train station. _But we never had fortune cookies… hell, I've only had dinner with Hikari once, and that was when me and Asuka were training to fight that angel with the dance. So how did this happen??_

At the station, Kodama turned to him and said, "Don't lose her or anything, slacker."

Before Shinji could reply, the oldest Horaki girl was hugging him. It was just a quick, sisterly gesture, lasting no more than five seconds, but it was the most Shinji had received in… ever. Asuka certainly was not forthcoming with affection – not that he was sure she even LIKED him – and Misato was always very careful to keep him at arm's length at all times.

As a result, Shinji had to fight very hard to keep from holding onto Kodama as she pulled back and gave a small wave.

"You're being weird."

Shinji nearly jumped. "Wh-what?" he asked, still unnerved by hearing Hikari's voice when he spoke. "What do you mean, Nozomi?"

Hikari's younger sister yawned. "You actually let her hug you," the girl pointed out, sounding vaguely offended. "What ever happened to, 'Oh, Kodama's so fake, being mean one minute and then trying to make nice the next,' huh? You're such a loser! I wouldn't have let her touch me!"

Licking his lips, Shinji tentatively took Nozomi's hand. "Be nice," he said awkwardly, feeling horribly ashamed for finding it so easy to slip into the roll of older sister. "She just… she's got school and stuff. You know she loves you, right?"

Nozomi rolled her eyes. "Duh," she snorted, "of course I know! But you said yourself that she needs to be nicer to us more often."

Shinji sighed.

Being someone else was hard work.

"Well," he said slowly, pulling Nozomi a little closer as the crowd began to surge towards the arriving train cars, "maybe we should try being nicer to her first, ok? Just for a while."

Looking completely put-upon, Nozomi groaned, "Do we have to…??"

How easily, Shinji thought with some shame, the word love came to his lips. As if he had ever had experience with it, or knew how to express it… yet there he was, calmly telling Hikari's little sister that she was loved. What did he know? All he had was the trace feelings left in Hikari's body to go on – what right did he have to tell Nozomi that Kodama loved her?

…how dare he even use the word?

Shrugging awkwardly, Shinji maneuvered Nozomi onto the train. "I'll try if you try," he said truthfully, completely unsure of how he might react to the eldest Horaki the next time he saw her, "deal?"

Nozomi nodded, gazing up at the face of her older sister with a careful, considering expression. "You're… different today," she mumbled. "You're never this nice to me."

"I'm not, huh?" Shinji said thoughtfully. "Do you WANT me to be nice to you?"

Thinking it over as if it was the most important question in the world, Nozomi finally gave an ambivalent shrug. "If you want to," she whispered, her eyes suddenly narrowing suspiciously as a new thought occurred to her. "Did Dad tell you to, or something?"

"No," Shinji said quietly, laying a hand on Nozomi's shoulder. "I just want to."

"Oh."

The doors to the train slid closed, and Nozomi fell silent, leaving Shinji to his thoughts. Unconsciously, he pulled Nozomi closer, resting his wrists on the girl's shoulders in a protective embrace as he asked himself, _Why__ am I doing this?_

He knew, instinctively, that he had to maintain the façade as long as he could – at the VERY least, until he had a chance to speak to Hikari (presumably residing in his body, though if she was not, a whole new can of worms would be opened up) and figure out how to get this strange little problem fixed. But to hold her sister like this?

It felt wrong… yet at the same time, it felt so right. Had he EVER been allowed to hold another human the way he was holding Hikari's sister at that very moment?

_And I AM her, right now,_ he told himself, forcing himself to remember that he was literally not himself at the moment, _I have to act like she'd act, and do the things she'd do, or people will think she's sick. Nozomi already thinks something's wrong with 'me,' and I can't afford to have anyone take me to the doctor or anything like that. I'd get in trouble – I know I would! Somehow… somehow this is my fault, and I have to­-_

"Hikari, let go – this is my stop!"

Shinji immediately raised his hands as Nozomi shrugged to get free of his hold. "Sorry," he said awkwardly, "I didn't… I'm sorry…"

For a moment, Nozomi simply glanced over her shoulder, assessing him closely for a moment. Finally, she turned away, her voice resounding with clearly-forced casualness as she said, "It's ok. And, umm… I don't really, like, MIND if you hug me – you know, sometimes, not ALL the time… ya know…?"

Swallowing a lump in his throat, Shinji nodded, painfully aware of the bobbing pigtails that were not his own, and the blush on the freckled cheeks that belonged to the little girl's sister. "Ok," he said weakly, "Hey, umm… have fun at school."

Nozomi looked back again, her smile now a mixture of surprise and pleasure as she giggled, "You're never this nice – never ever! …did you get a boyfriend or something? Daddy's gonna be mad if you did! See ya!!"

Dashing off the train before Shinji could reply, Nozomi gave a jaunty, backward wave… and vanished into the early-morning crowd.

Shinji spent the rest of the train ride and the subsequent walk to school in contemplative silence. How odd, he thought, that he should feel this calm. He was trapped in another person's body – and a girl's, at that – yet he was not all that concerned. By all rights he should have been running full speed to meet Hikari (provided she actually WAS in his body) and find a way to get back to normal, but here he was, calmly walking into school and waving to Hikari's friends as if nothing was wrong.

_She HAS to be in my body,_ he thought as he approached the classroom door, _she sure isn't in here with me! But what if she stayed home sick? What if she freaked out and told Asuka, or Misato? …God, what if she didn't get into my body at all?? What if she just got… got knocked out of this one, and mine is just lying there… dead…?_

Taking a deep breath to steel himself, Shinji pulled the classroom door open and stepped inside. Several people waved, but Shinji's eyes went immediately to his normal desk, where he found himself looking, in a twisted sort of way, into a mirror. It gave him vertigo to stare too long, but he found that he could not pull his eyes away, for in his desk sat… him – Shinji Ikari – talking quietly with Touji and Kensuke, just like always.

The worst feeling in the world, however, hit Shinji as his body lifted its head and stared right at him, its face blank and expressionless for a moment, as if it had never seen him before. Then, just as his heart was about to stop, Shinji saw his own face crumple with relief, and he knew, without a doubt, that Hikari was in there.

As he took a step forward, however, someone grabbed him by the arm and hustled him back out. "Hey, what-?"

"Come here."

Shinji swallowed, his feet obeying instantly at the tone of command in that too-familiar voice.

_Asuka…_

"Ok," the Second muttered, pulling Shinji into an unused classroom, "they won't hear us in here."

"Umm, who won't?" Shinji asked, confused.

"The three stooges, of course," Asuka huffed, "Geez! Who else? Look, I need to talk to you."

"Er, ok…"

Asuka ran a hand through her silky red hair, distracting Shinji with her simple, nearly effortless beauty. "Shinji's acting weird today."

_…damn it._

"Weird how?" Shinji asked innocently. "Like… like screaming and saying he's someone else, or-"

"Don't be stupid," Asuka snorted, "he's just, I don't know – weird! Like, he slept in…"

"O…k…"

Asuka growled in frustration. "Shinji never sleeps in!" she said insistently. "He's always up first, you know that… and then when I came to wake him up, he just stared at me for like, a minute, like he couldn't understand why I was there. He said it was because he was having a strange dream, but he kept looking at me and um…"

"And what?" Shinji pressed curiously.

"…pinching himself," Asuka said finally. "I don't think he knew I could see him, but he kept pinching his arm, like he was trying to make sure he wasn't STILL dreaming, or something." Tossing her hair, Asuka smirked. "I know I'm gorgeous," she said nonchalantly, "and having me in his room at all must be like a dream for him… but the pinching? Freaky."

Shinji nodded. "I can relate," he muttered, "I had a weird dream myself."

"Tell me about it later," Asuka said dismissively, "but for now… just watch Shinji. I think he might be like, on drugs or something."

"Really??"

Asuka huffed impatiently. "Of course not, dummy!" she said irritably, "But still… something's up – and I'm going to find out what."

_Damn,_ Shinji thought as the redhead started back towards her desk, _now I HAVE to talk to Hikari! If Asuka starts grilling her, she might not be able to keep up._ _I better do it now, too – it looks like she's gonna go talk to… er, me. God this is confusing!_

Shaking his head as Asuka marched off towards 'Shinji,' the Third Child headed back into the classroom, trying to figure out how he was going to keep the redhead from discovering their little secret. As he crossed the threshold, however, something happened that struck him with fear – a possibility he had not even considered on a conscious level, as it was so terrifying that he did not even want to confront it.

The angel alarm began to sound.

"Stay calm," the teacher called unnecessarily, raising his hands to ward off panic as the students – by now long since familiar with this routine – rose slowly to their feet and began gathering their belongings. "Everyone get to the shelter! Miss Horaki – where are you going?"

Shinji came up short at the sharp call. "I was just…"

He trailed off. _I'm not Shinji right now,_ he thought, tasting REAL panic for the first time since waking up in Hikari's bed, _Oh God – I'm NOT SHINJI._

Whirling around, he caught sight of Hikari. Her eyes were wide as she scanned the teeming mass of students, and for a moment… their eyes met. The panic faded from Shinji's mind as Hikari gave him a distinct, careful nod. There was nothing they could do about their situation, for now, and if Hikari started shouting that she was not Shinji, there would be a panic the likes of which had never been seen in Tokyo-3.

'Don't worry,' Hikari mouthed, 'I'll handle it.'

Shinji gave her a nod, straightening his back as he mouthed back, 'Be careful.'

Turning towards the door, he called out, "Clear a path for the pilots – you know how this works! Come on, out of the way!"

Asuka raced past him, the smile on her face unmistakable as she hurried off to do what she did best… and a moment later, Hikari followed, sparing a brief, nervous smile for the boy in her body before she too disappeared down the hallway, leaving Shinji with nothing more than a prayer that when the time came, she would know how to fight.

- - - - -

"I'm home!"

Kodama Horaki groaned as she kicked off her shoes, making her way into the house in search of something to eat. The angel alarm had sounded before lunch… and her shelter had only had crackers and water for 'provisions.' Her stomach rumbled loudly as she entered the kitchen.

"Hey, Hikari," she said tiredly, "what are we having?"

"Nice to see you too," Hikari said lightly, carefully stirring a wok simmering on the stove before replacing the lid, "I guess you made it to a shelter ok… thanks for asking if I did – it really means a lot that you care."

"Oh, don't be such a drama queen," Kodama said, rolling her eyes, "I called dad as soon as I was let out of the shelter, and he said you were fine – so don't get all martyr on me!"

"Sorry."

Kodama leaned back in her chair. "That was easy," she said softly, drumming her fingers on the kitchen table. "I thought you'd milk that for a good hour at least. You've been kind of… out of it since you woke up. You feeling ok?"

Glancing over her shoulder, Hikari gave a reassuring smile. "I was having a hard time this morning," she admitted, "but when I was in the shelter with Nozomi, I had a lot of time to figure out what was bothering me."

"And?"

"And I'm better now," Hikari said simply.

"Oh…"

Frowning, Kodama assessed her younger sister, trying to put her finger on what was bothering her. She LOOKED the same… she TALKED the same… she had all the same mannerisms… but Kodama just felt like something was… off.

_Must be my imagination, _she told herself, shaking her head to clear it, _she was acting weird this morning, but she seems fine now._

"So what are you making?" she asked, forcing the strange idea that her sister was different somehow out of her mind.

"Oh, chicken fried rice," Hikari said absently, "I've wanted to make it for a while now, but I could never get it quite right, so I asked someone up at school about it."

"Really?" Kodama said, already losing interest in the conversation. "Who?"

Hikari turned away a faint smile lingering on her lips as she murmured, "No one you'd know…"

With this, Hikari changed the subject… and Kodama never thought to ask again.

The End

Author's notes: saw that ending a mile away, didn't you? This story is over, but there may be an alternate version coming sometime in the future.

No pre-reader was used on this story.

Feedback is welcome on any site with reviewing capabilities, or by e-mailing me directly at random1377(at-sign)yahoo(dot)com.


	2. Beta

Disclaimer: I don't own EVA. If the owners say to, I'll take this story offline. Thanks.

Predictable

(Beta)

By Random1377

Hikari's pleasant dream of making out with her crush, Touji Suzuhara while floating weightlessly through the sky was shattered into a million pieces by a harsh, strident voice, calling for her to 'wake the hell up.' The main problem with this was not the loss of the dream itself, but the instant, intuitive grasp that something was horribly wrong.

That and the owner of the voice herself, of course.

"Hey, idiot! I said wake UP!"

Sitting up in bed – and noticing absently that she was very cold, Hikari glanced around for the source of the call, rubbing her eyes tiredly as she murmured, "Asuka…? What are you doing here?"

_I sound all raspy,_ she thought, finally glancing up at Asuka, _And I…_

The thought trailed off as she stared at her friend.

This was not her room.

This was not her bed.

This was not her-

"Hello!" Asuka grumbled, unknowingly voicing the very word Hikari was thinking, if not the tone she would have said it in. "It's like, almost seven thirty, Third Child! I'm starving! What's with you? Why are you staring at me like that??"

As discretely as she could, Hikari reached under the covers and pinched her arm. _Yeah, that hurts,_ she thought, continuing to stare blankly at Asuka as she gave herself another pinch. _Ow__! Ok, not dreaming…_

Seizing on this word, she cleared her throat. "I was… having a weird dream," she said, her alarm growing as she realized that her voice was NOT getting higher. "I'll get up in a second."

"Whatever."

_Did she just call me Third… oh no…_

As soon as her friend walked out, Hikari lifted her blanket… then quickly let it drop, going red in the face as she hurriedly crossed her hands over her lap.

"Can't be," she muttered, shivering slightly as she squirmed in the foreign bed, "there's no way…!"

Tentatively, she lifted the covers again, taking a longer look before slowly re-covering herself. Or rather, HIMself, as somehow over the course of the night… she had become a boy.

_Not just any boy,_ she told herself, glancing around the room she was in, _Oh no – a very specific boy. How did this happen??_

Hikari felt that it was a testament to her willpower that she was not screaming her head off. She was somehow in Shinji's room, and wearing his body like a Halloween costume.

…and based on her current state, his body was happy to see her.

"Cut it out," she demanded, finding her one-sided conversation with the conspicuous rise in Shinji's blankets not half as odd as the fact that she could FEEL what was causing it. "Cut it out… go down… go away! I can't… I can't deal with this right now – I have to figure out what's happening, and I can't if you're poking around! God, how does he DRESS with this thing in the way??"

Sitting still, and forcing herself to avoid thinking of anything even remotely sexual, Hikari felt the uncomfortable swelling going down. _Good!_ she thought, carefully pulling the covers back and avoiding contact with her lower half, just in case. _Now stay!_

Hikari looked around the room for thirty seconds before remembering that she did not currently need the bra she had casually tossed over her study chair the night before… which was good, since it was across town at that very moment, waiting for Shinji to-

"Shinji!" she said out loud, nearly running to the door before remembering that she was dressed in nothing but underpants and a nightshirt. "Shinji… oh no – are you where I should be??"

_Ok, options, _she thought, scrubbing a hand through hair that was far too short. _One – freak out and scream. Not good. Asuka would definitely call the psych ward on me... well, on Shinji, actually, and I'd be locked up faster than you can say 'nutcase.' Option two… ok, when you get right down to it, I don't have any options. I have to get to where Shinji is, only… will he stay at home? No, he's not that stupid – he'd go to school, so that's where I need to be._

As quickly as she could, she grabbed a clean outfit from Shinji's closet, deliberately ignoring the mild discomfort that indicated, as far as she could tell, that she needed to use the bathroom.

_Uh-uh,_ she thought sardonically, _not this girl! You'll just have to wait for the real Shinji to come back. _Making her way into the kitchen, she found Asuka waiting impatiently for her breakfast. _So,_ she told herself, _think like Shinji… what would Shinji do right now?_

"Sorry…"

Asuka rolled her eyes. "Yes, I know," she said, her voice longsuffering and weary, "I just take that for granted now, since you say it so much. I put out some stuff for breakfast. I'd do it myself, but, well…"

Hikari nodded, a memory that was not her own bubbling up through her thoughts. "We aired everything out," she said soothingly, "you can't even smell the smoke anymore."

_Ok,_ she thought as Asuka grumbled under her breath, _it LOOKS like I have Shinji's memories… or at least some of them. I've never cooked in here, but I know where all the pans are… and I never knew that Asuka ruined Misato's good skillet by burning eggs to it one day – God, Shinji's nicer than I thought. I'm her best friend, and even I would have made fun of her for that for days!_

"Do you want me to teach you how to cook?" Hikari asked impulsively.

Asuka looked up suspiciously. "Don't make fun of me," she warned, "I'm not in the mood, Third."

Keeping her face straight, Hikari mentally shook her head. _Stupid move, Horaki,_ she thought, _don't try to improve THEIR situation… just worry about how to get things back to normal. Huh, I wonder if I'll even remember all of this when we switch back…?_

The thought that they would switch back was so overwhelming in her mind that Hikari found that she was already starting to adapt to being Shinji. If it was only temporary, she told herself, maybe she SHOULD do something to help the poor boy out. She liked Shinji a lot – not the way she liked Touji, of course, but he was so nice that she found herself feeling sorry for him.

Why not try to make things a little easier for him when he got 'home,' she figured?

"I'm not making fun of you, Asuka," Hikari said, keeping her voice carefully non-aggressive to avoid angering the redhead any further, "just um… let me know if you want to learn, and I'll teach you."

Glancing over her shoulder, Hikari found Asuka scowling at her.

"S-sorry…"

_Wow, _she thought, fighting an urge to apologize more, _she's in a bad mood! I keep forgetting that I'm not her friend right now. She must really hate him…_

Unconsciously, Hikari tilted the pan she was about to put on the stove, angling its shiny surface until she caught a reflection of Asuka's face… and nearly dropping it as she found the redhead staring her up and down, her expression an odd mix of contempt and fascination.

_Then again,_ she thought, carefully setting the pan on the stove, _that__ could just be a front…_

"Fried eggs ok?"

"Sure."

As Hikari cooked, she kept stealing small glances at Asuka, taking great care to ensure that she was not seen… and by the time the food was ready, she was sure of one thing – Asuka was hiding a terrible secret from everyone in her life, her best friend included. She did not know just what the redhead felt for her fellow pilot, but Hikari was at least ninety percent sure that it wasn't hate.

_She might not even LIKE him like him,_ Hikari thought as she set Asuka's breakfast in front of her, _but I'll be damned if she doesn't think he's at LEAST ok._

Used to sleeping late, Hikari made bentos on autopilot, absently chewing a few pieces of bread as she worked and finishing in record time. Asuka must not have noticed the difference in 'Shinji's' eating habits, as she made no comment of the light breakfast Hikari scarfed down for him.

"Ready?"

"Yeah," Asuka replied, pushing her empty plate back and rising to her feet. "Just a second."

Hikari gathered the breakfast dishes up and put them in the sink as Asuka wandered out of the kitchen. _Just need to keep things up until I can talk to Shinji and we can figure out a way to-_

"…Hikari."

Opening her mouth to reply, Hikari felt her whole body tense. _She knows…??_ she thought incredulously, glancing around for the redhead and blinking as she found herself alone in the kitchen. _What the…_

Setting the fork in her hand down, she moved closer to the door, glancing around the frame and catching sight of Asuka's elbow, barely visible around the corner to the living room.

"Oh, she already went to school?" she heard Asuka say, "No, it's not important… I just wanted to ask her something. I'll catch her in class. Sorry I woke you up, Mister Horaki."

_Dad,_ Hikari thought with a mental wince, _well, 'I've' already left for school – that's a good sign, right? If dad knew that I wasn't… er… myself, there's no way he'd be taking a nap._ Her expression darkened. _Kind of surprising that he didn't notice, really, since he's always in my business. I've got to try to be more like Shinji! Asuka sees him every day, so if anyone was going to figure out that something's wrong, it's her. _

Shaking off the thoughts of her nosy father, and the sinking suspicion that Asuka might already know something, Hikari began gathering the things she would need for school, pleasantly surprised to find that not only did she instinctively know where everything was, but that Shinji seemed to be almost as compulsive about keeping his things tidy as she was.

_If we're stuck like this for a while,_ she thought pragmatically, _at least I'll know where everything is._

Together with Asuka, Hikari made her way out of the apartment, thankful that the redhead was keeping her silence and giving Hikari the chance to think. How many times, she mused as they stepped onto the train, had she seen a movie, or read a book where people switched bodies? They were always so predictable! They would flounder around for a while, get comfortable, face some kind of crisis, realize they were happier with their old lives, and find a way to switch back.

Predictable.

_Only this isn't a movie,_ she thought, smiling to herself as a wickedly decedent thought occurred to her. _Since I'm stuck this way… shouldn't I make the most of it?_

"Hey Touji," she called, spotting Shinji's friend as they rounded the corner and headed into the school, "what's up?"

"Oh, hey Ikari," Touji replied, narrowing his eyes as he saw Asuka, "Hey Devilgirl."

"Shove it, stooge," Asuka shot back without missing a beat, "the 1980s called… they want their tracksuit back."

Hikari laughed at the sour expression on Touji's face.

_Well, I can't make a move like this,_ she thought, falling in step with Touji as Kensuke walked up to them and Asuka increased her pace and left her in the dust, _but I guess I could do some intelligence gathering. As the old saying goes, 'When opportunity knocks.'_

"So, Touji," she said, making her voice as casual as possible as they walked into the classroom, "is there anyone you like?"

Touji's reply was faster, and sharper, than Asuka's.

"I like girls, dude."

Kensuke laughed, slapping Hikari's back as she turned bright red. "He got you, man," the military nut chuckled, "and just because you work with two hot chicks doesn't give you the right to go rubbing it in."

"But I wasn't-"

"Oh come on," Touji cut in, slipping into his desk and looking around as if he could not find something, "every time you start to ask about girls, it's because you think you might have insulted one of your two little girlfriends – like that time you went to Ayanami's to give her that ID card and you fell on her."

Hikari's right hand twitched as a surprisingly vivid memory of a very naked Rei Ayanami filled her mind. _Ikari_ she thought with some amazement, _you little hentai!_

As if on cue, a soft voice whispered, "Will you move? I cannot get past…"

"Oh, hi Ayanami," Hikari said, a faint shiver working through her as she turned around to find the blue-haired girl's hypnotic red eyes boring into her. "H-how are you?"

Rei, notorious for ignoring most attempts at conversation, waited until Hikari moved to the side, and stepped past, her voice almost sub-audible as she barely murmured, "kari…"

Hikari whipped around as the pale girl calmly walked past her. _Did she just say _I_kari__… or _H_ikari__…??_

"What did you do now?" Kensuke murmured slyly, making Hikari jump. "Look at him! He's turning all red! Did you ask her out, Ikari??"

"N-no!" Hikari protested, feeling her face go redder still as she dropped into Shinji's desk, "I mean… no, I didn't…"

_Now I really feel sorry for Shinji,_ she thought sadly, trying not to notice as the pilot's friends began naming off parts of Rei's anatomy that Shinji may or may not be interested in. _He gets it from all sides! …he definitely needs someone to help him out._

"Actually," she said quietly, "I was kind of thinking of asking Horaki out."

There was a stunned silence… then Kensuke and Touji burst out laughing.

"W-what?" Hikari mumbled, "What's so funny?? She's cute!"

_I am, damn it! Not gorgeous, or anything, but they don't need to LAUGH!_

"Of course she's CUTE, dude!"

Hikari's ego soared.

"…but she's such a stuck-up little know-it-all!"

Hikari's ego took a sharp nosedive.

"She's not… that bad," she murmured defensively, feeling her face going red once more. "Come on, you guys… she's not… horrible, right?"

"I'd rather have someone like Karishima," Kensuke sighed, "now SHE'S cute – and she likes you, dude, why don't you do something about it?"

"What about you, Touji?" Hikari heard herself asking, "You don't think Hikari's that bad, do you?"

Touji scratched his head, glancing at Hikari's normal desk for several endless minutes before finally whispering, "I never thought about it, man, I don't have time to."

"What do you mean?" Hikari asked, feeling her stomach clench as Touji turned his eyes back to her.

"Kimiko," Touji said simply. "My sister's the only girl I can think about right now – you know that. Yeah," he yawned, stretching out in his seat and closing his eyes, "Horaki's easy enough on the eyes, and she's pretty nice, too… but until the angels are all gone, and Kimiko's out of the hospital, I can't even THINK about what it would be like to be with her or anyone else." Suddenly grinning, he punched Hikari in the arm, making her wince. "So hurry up and win the war, ya slacker!"

"Y-yeah…"

Hikari rubbed her arm, staring at her desk as she was forcefully reminded of what Shinji did when he was not in school. _But he has the right to be happy, too,_ she thought, glancing up as the classroom door slid open and a girl stepped in, _just like I do. Just like Touji does. The longer I'm 'him' the more I realize that I need to help him to… wait!_

Her face crumpled with relief as she realized that she was looking at her own body, but before she could say anything, Asuka was hustling 'her' out of the classroom.

_Damn it,_ she thought, fighting the urge to jump up and chase after them, _ok, stay calm –stay calm! Asuka probably just wants to gossip about something… no big deal. _Easier said than done, she discovered, was possibly the most appropriate saying ever coined. She fidgeted, anxiously awaiting the reappearance of her body for several long minutes. _What could they be talking about?!_ she thought, swallowing hard as the teacher stepped into the classroom and began assembling his notes, _'I' have to get back in here so class can start… and I have to find a way to talk to Shinji – maybe message him on the computer system or something so we can figure this out._

The need to find a solution, she realized with a start, was not as burning as it had been when she had first awoken. Yes, she wanted to get back into her own body, yes she wanted her life back… but being Shinji was not turning out to be as bad as she had thought it would be. The boy definitely had some issues to deal with – especially when it came to demanding respect from his friends and having more confidence in himself… but Hikari had always done well with those areas of life.

_Maybe this is fate's way of helping him out?_

Finding this idea comfortable – if a bit convenient – Hikari did her best to calm down… though she did heave a deep sigh of relief when Asuka reentered the classroom.

…unfortunately, the sigh nearly turned into a scream as the angel alarm began to sound.

"Stay calm!" the teacher called, raising his arms grandly as the students rose to their feet and coolly began gathering their things. "Everyone get to the shelter! Miss Horaki – where are you going?"

Hikari blinked as she noticed Shinji starting for the door. _That's my job this time,_ she realized with a chill, _I have to pilot!_

Pushing back from her desk, Hikari stared at Shinji until their eyes met, nodding slowly as his panicked expression faded to calm. 'Don't worry,' she mouthed, 'I'll handle it.'

Shinji returned her nod, straitening a bit as he mouthed back, 'Be careful.'

Turning towards the door, he called out, "Clear a path for the pilots – you know how this works! Come on, out of the way!"

Hikari followed Asuka out of the class, giving Shinji a brief, tense smile. _Here goes everything,_ she thought, dashing through the slowly filling halls as the thrill of the unknown washed over her, _I'm going to fight… finally, I get to protect everyone instead of cowering in a shelter like a rat waiting to die._

She nearly came up short at the force of this thought.

When had she gotten so bitter about her helplessness?? She was always calm and composed – hell, she even pushed her sisters away when they tried to hug her… Kodama because Hikari thought she was doing it because she felt she had to, Nozomi because Hikari felt like SHE was doing it because she had to. Emotions were all well and good, but if you let them get out of hand, they made you act stupid – like when she had shouted at Shinji because he was doing better with Rei than Asuka in their training for the last angel.

_No wonder Rei keeps it all inside,_ she thought astutely.

Throughout the entire drive to NERV, and the briefing where Misato outlined the threat of the angel falling from orbit onto Tokyo-3 and annihilating it, Hikari's thoughts were in turmoil. Did she… WANT this…? Even suiting up, she found only excitement where fear should have been. Here she was, encased in skintight neoprene, waiting for the call to go out and risk her life against nearly impossible odds, and all she could think was 'Let me at 'em!'

"Third Child Shinji Ikari," a woman's voice announced over the loudspeaker system, "please report to transportation division."

Hikari nodded to herself, stepping out of the men's locker room and letting the door close behind her. The EVAs had been situated in a rough triangle around Tokyo-3 in order to provide maximum coverage, so Hikari would not have to worry about messing up in front of Rei or Asuka, and Misato had decided that they should be inserted onsite, to allow them a bit more time to work on their wills, should they change their minds.

_Will,_ Hikari thought, making her way to the transportation division and boarding a waiting jeep, _I could die… I probably WILL die – I don't know how to pilot! I'm not Shinji!_

In spite of these dark thoughts, confidence still reigned supreme in her chest as they made the long drive to where Unit 01 was waiting. She longed – ACHED – to fight for the ones she held dear.

She could do this.

She HAD to do this.

_How many times have I wished I could be someone like Asuka?_ Hikari thought, staring at the backs of her plugsuited hands in wonder as she was led to the entry plug. _But then… why Shinji? If this IS a wish, why didn't I become Asuka?_ The answer, she found was so obvious that she nearly slapped herself in the forehead. _Of course,_ she mused sadly, breathing in the thick LCL without a second thought and barely noticing the shuddering of the plug as it was lifted up to its entry position, _Shinji always looks so unhappy. This must have been his wish too, and since he's LIKE Asuka – always rushing in to save the day – the wish… damn it, this is all so confusing! I never actually MADE a wish! I mean, yeah, I thought about what it would be like, but I never looked up and said 'star light, star bright,' or anything like that. Maybe it's like that old pre-impact movie, Prelude to a Kiss. Didn't they-_

"Nerve impulse feedback," a woman's voice announced over the speaker in Unit 01, "pulse feed rejected!"

"Start from step 342," Ritsuko's voice countered, "Shinji – concentrate! What are you thinking about in there? We can't even get a sympath reading!"

"Sorry," Hikari said meekly.

Biting her lip, she focused on what was happening, trying to remember everything she had heard from the pilots about synchronization. She 'remembered' the feeling of synching, and she could actually hear Asuka saying, "You have to open yourself up… well, that's what everyone keeps saying – I just get in and do it, but it must be hard for Wondergirl and the Hero, or something, because they keep going over it."

Taking a deep breath, Hikari closed her eyes, finding that she could feel the faintest fluttering sense of something OTHER tickling at the corners of her consciousness. "EVA?" she whispered, "You… are EVA, right?"

"Shinji, what are you DOING?!" Ritsuko's voice boomed. "Are you even trying?"

"Yes ma'am!" Hikari groaned, "Just… having a hard ti-"

"Get it straightened out! This is important!"

"Right! Sorry!!"

Hikari took a deep breath, held it, and let her body go limp in the pilot's seat, doing her best to ignore Maya's voice as it reported, "Zero reading, Sempai. Should we abort…?"

_Ok,_ she thought nervously, _Listen, Miss EVA… Ikari's… kind of busy right now. Please work for me, ok? It's really important that we fight right now – and I promise I'll try to figure out how to get Shinji back to you, ok?_ For a moment, she thought she felt that fluttering getting stronger, but it backed away like a frightened puppy the moment she tried to draw it to her.

"So I can't force you," she murmured. "I'm sorry – I won't try again… but please, please work, ok? All I've ever wanted was to protect my family, and now, as him, I can – but only if you'll help me. Will you help me, EVA? Will you…?"

Several minutes passed in tense silence as Hikari waited for a reply – any reply. She kept her mind clear, imagining that she was a vase, waiting only for someone to come fill her with a beautiful bouquet of flowers. _That's right,_ she thought, holding her breath once more as she locked onto this image, _Fill me… use me… let me guide you, EVA – and together… together we'll protect everyone, ok? I just-_

"Pull the plug," Ritsuko announced flatly, "this is stupid. Shinji – you better have a damn good reason for-"

"Sempai!"

Hikari gasped as suddenly… the vase was filled – warmth pouring through her from the soul out, flooding her with radiance as every nerve in her body sang out a song of synchronicity and union.

For the first time in her life – Hikari knew what 'alive' really meant.

"Green across the board, Sempai," she heard Maya's voice announce with some relief, "synch ratio's a little on the low side, but still within acceptable parameters."

"Fine," Ritsuko replied tersely, "just launch them – we've wasted too much time on this already."

_Thank you, Miss EVA,_ Hikari thought giddily, taking the control yokes tightly in her hands and smiling from ear to ear as she thought of how proud her father would be if he could see her. _Now-_

"Let's MOVE OUT!!"

- - - - -

Asuka sighed, pulling her towel tight around her body as she headed into her bedroom. _What a day…_

From the moment she had woken Shinji, the redhead had felt that something was wrong… but for the life of her, she could not figure out what it was. Everything SEEMED normal, especially now that the angel had been defeated, but when the day had begun, she would have said that something was definitely off.

_Funny,_ she thought, slipping into her room and pulling on a clean pair of shorts and her favorite yellow tee shirt, _Shinji seemed so weird earlier… but now he's just…_

Just what?

…she wondered.

Filled with sudden trepidation, Asuka tiptoed towards the living room, frowning as she picked up the sound of Shinji's hushed voice, barely reaching her from the kitchen.

"No, no," the Third was saying, "I think everything's ok now… don't you?" A moment of silence indicated listening, then Asuka heard a sound she barely ever heard from the sullen pilot.

Laughter.

"Don't worry… I will. Talk to you later, then."

Frowning, Asuka walked boldly into the kitchen. "Who was that?" she asked bluntly.

Shinji looked surprised. "Asuka!" he said awkwardly, "I thought you were taking a bath."

"I was," Asuka countered, "how long do you think it takes me to get clean? Wait! Don't answer that… I don't want you thinking about me in the bath. Sicko."

There was an uncomfortable silence as Shinji fiddled with his homework, poking the tip of his pencil into the ball of his thumb as he stared down at his meticulously written notes.

_Who else does that?_ Asuka thought suddenly, frowning at the pencil as a hint of a memory rose in her mind. _Someone up at school, I think. I can almost picture-_

"Hey," Shinji said suddenly, cutting into Asuka's thoughts and sending the idle observation back into the recesses of her memory, where it would never quite surface again.

"Hmm?"

"Horaki was telling me about that new comedy movie that just opened up last weekend," the Third said, seemingly choosing his words with great care, "she said you'd probably like it, and she wanted to know if maybe we should all get together and go see it."

"When did you see Hikari?" Asuka wondered. "We left school like, as soon as it started."

Shinji's eyes widened so minutely that Asuka would later convince herself that it was a trick of the light. "Er, yesterday," Shinji said after a moment's hesitation, "I think you were in the bathroom."

_When did I go to the bathroom and leave Hikari and Shinji in class?_ Asuka wondered, trying to think back to the previous day, _She__ went with me after first period but… oh, wait, right after lunch. But didn't she go with me that time? I don't remember, but – what the hell??_ Shaking herself, Asuka pursed her lips. _Why am I freaking out about this? Shinji wouldn't lie to me, _she thought firmly, _he might be kind of a loser, but he's always honest. Huh. He's not asking me out on a date or anything, so I guess it could be fun._

"Yeah, sure," she said finally, "we'll talk to everyone about it tomorrow or something. I'm going to bed."

"Goodnight, Asuka."

Asuka hesitated, drawn by the soft quality of Shinji's voice, but when she turned back to face him, she found him already bending his head to work on his homework. _Funny,_ she thought, watching the boy for a moment longer before heading towards her room. _It… ALMOST sounded like he was smiling…_

Dismissing the thought of a seductively smiling Shinji Ikari, Asuka started to get ready for bed… but as she pulled her covers back, an odd idea occurred to her. Striding back into the kitchen, she planted her hands on the table and leaned forward, getting right in Shinji's face.

"Did you just ask me on a date?"

Shinji, she noticed, did not look down the front of her shirt – a fact that both impressed and irritated her. She was, after all, pretty nicely built… why wasn't he looking? She pushed the annoyance aside, though, as Shinji set his pencil down and looked her straight in the eye.

"No, Asuka," he said quietly, "if it was a date, I wouldn't bring everyone with. I just thought you might like to see a movie with some of our friends."

Asuka hesitated. "Why wait until we got home to ask me?" she murmured, refusing to let the issue drop. "Why not ask me when everyone was there?"

Shinji bowed his head, and Asuka was positive, this time, that he was smiling as he replied, "Because it was… convenient."

After several minutes of silence, Asuka realized that she was not going to get a better reply. "Whatever," she muttered, pushing away from the table and heading back towards her room, "don't try to be clever, Third Child… it doesn't work for you. Night."

"Night."

In spite of herself, Asuka found herself feeling pretty good as she headed into her room and turned out the lights. It was not a date – she believed that – so there was no danger of Shinji trying to hit on her… not that she was SCARED of getting close to anyone, or anything like that, she just didn't want an amateur trying to drool all over her. Then again, she could always use more friends, and from Shinji's combat performance against the angel, he was definitely worthy of her company.

Slipping into bed, Asuka decided that a movie with the Third Child (and others, of course) might not be such a bad idea after all, her final thought before drifting off to be lingering well after she had begun to dream.

_Maybe this little 'attitude change' or whatever he's doing isn't such a bad thing after all…_

The End

Author's Notes: I was thinking of explaining everything in these notes… but since some people already figured everything out, I'm not going to. I called this predictable because I've read the idea of people body-swapping about 4535 times (approximately), and I was sure some people out there would get three paragraphs in and mutter, "God this is predictable."

Was it?

My spitefulness aside, I hope you enjoyed reading this story… and if you really, REALLY have to know what became of Shinji and Hikari – yes, they did! It's all clear now, right?

Feedback can be left on any site with reviewing capabilities, or by e-mailing me directly at random1377(at-sign)yahoo(dot)com.


End file.
